PREFACE. 
Tu18 little book, written for young children, is but 
a stepping-stone to the more systematic study of 
English History. 
Its chief purpose is to awaken an interest in the 
subject, and create in the children a desire to know 
more of it. Its aim is not so much to store the 
mind with facts, as to fill it with pictures of the 
past, that will live in the imagination and take root 
in the memory. 
It dwells, therefore, only on the more striking 
and picturesque events in the life of the nation, and 
on such as are likely to be of interest to the young. 
And as children are more interested in personal 
actions than in great national movements, much 
of the book is taken up with personal history— 
with tales of noble and heroic deeds, with stories of